250 Reasons We Love Amherst

Our small town just celebrated its 250th birthday!  Here are 250 reasons we love our Amherst which are also 250 reasons we should pass an override to preserve what we have.  If an override fails again, we won't lose all these things.  But we will lose some of them.  We've been cutting away each year at the quality of our schools, libraries, and town services little by little.    It's time we put some investment into the town that we hold dear.  

What do you love about Amherst?  Send us your favorites at the bottom of this page!

Locally Grown: 

1. Llama poop compost
2. Simple Gifts Farm
3. Small Ones Farm
4. Brookfield Farm CSA
5. Stone House Farm
6. Delta Organic Farm
7. Muddy Brook Farm
8. Old Friends Farm
9. Swartz Family Farm
10. Walking to Sunset Farm in town (!) and picking raspberries and tomatoes and peas at
11. Wheatberry Organic Grain CSA, Panninis, & Bread
12. The beautiful Bramble Hill Farm
13. 2,000 Acres of protected agricultural land
14. Amherst Community Gardens
15. Spending a sunny Saturday morning at the Amherst Farmer's Market

Locally Owned:

16. Amherst Farmers Supply
17. Cowls
18. AJ Hastings
19. Atkins Farms Market
20. The Harp Family Pub
21. A massage and hot tub at Elements Hot Tubs
22. Hearty meals at Judie's
23. The IPA at Amherst Brewing Company
24. The Steak Quesadilla Pizza at Antonio's
25. Yummy take-out from Portabella Fine Foods
26. Chocolate Milkshakes at Bart's Homemade
27. The Pub & Rafters
28. Essentials
29. The Redman sandwich at Loose Goose Cafe
30. House of Teriyaki
31. Mom's House
32. Yummy bread at Henion Bakery
33. Cool jewelry at Silverscape Designs
34. Amherst Discount Day (before Christmas)
35. The Gypsy Wranglers on Sunday mornings at The Black Sheep
36. Local, organic food at Tabellas
37. Cushman Market
38. Thought-provoking author talks at Food for Thought Books
39. The big fat burritos at Bueno Y Sano
40. Moan & Dove
41. Cali cuisine at the Monkey Bar
42. Laughing Dog Bicycles
43. All our local authors!
44. The bald guy who owns DVDen
45. Trash to Treasures Used Furniture Sale on the Common
46. Tea rolls at Fresh Side
47. Shootin' the breeze at Matt's Barber Shop
48. Spirit Haus
49. Kamel Hassan's Furniture Barn
50. $2 Tuesday Latte Day at Rao's Coffee
51. Pick your own flowers from Andrew's Greenhouse
52. Great gardening workshops at Annie's Garden Center
53. Ren's Mobil - still a gas station in the middle of town!
54. Rusty Belle on Sunday mornings at Amherst Coffee
55. No GAP or McDonalds or Burger King or Big Box Stores
56. Amherst Wines & Spirits - always an awesome $15 bottle from Steve
57. The Toy Box - Liz gets the best stuff!
58. The Mole Sauce at La Veracruzana
59. Local, organic food Amherst Chinese
60. Sushi at Panda East - the ARHS kids' fav!
61. The awesome and little-known Amherst College book repository/SAC bunker
62. Our primary industry is clean & green: Education
63. A robust entrepreneur community that supports each other (Hidden Tech, etc.)
64. Long River Ventures (local VC firm)

Open Space: 

65. Our new five-year Open Space and Recreation Plan
66. Robert Frost Trail
67. Sunsets from Mt. Pollux
68. Amethyst Brook & Mt. Orient
69. That awesome view looking east off West Street
70. Amherst Town Common
71. Sweetser Park
72. Puffer's Pond
73. Mill River Recreation Area
74. View of the Holyoke Range from the Plum Brook Soccer Fields
75. South Amherst Common
76. Mount Norwottuck
77. Bare Mountain
78. Larch Hill Conservation Area
79. The Notch at Mt. Holyoke State Park
80. Lawrence Swamp
81. Haskin's Meadow
82. Metacomet & Monandnock (M&M) Trail
83. Kendrick Park
84. Cherry Hill
85. Groff Park
86. Wildwood Cemetery

Recreation: 

87. Amherst Little League
88. Amherst Youth Soccer Association
89. Amherst Tritons Swimming
90. LSSE Youth Basketball
91. Amherst Youth Hockey
92. Summer Ultimate League of Amherst
93. Winterfest
94. 4th of July Parade & Festival through downtown
95. Swimming holes in the Mill River
96. Mill River Recreation Area baseball fields, picnic areas, river, pool
97. Norwottuck Rail Trail
98. Kayaking the Fort River
99. UMass Hockey
100. National Ultimate Training Camp
101. Wildwood Sledding Hill
102. War Memorial Swimming Pool (wait....)
103. Ice Skating at the Mullins Center
104. Two town sanctioned off-leash dog parks
105. The Horse Caves
106. Movies on the Common - wait, these were cut
107. May Day on Cushman Common
108. 4th of July Parade on South Amherst Common
109. Hampshire Athletic Club
110. Leading Edge Fitness

Town Services:

111. Free downtown WiFi
112. Master Planning Process
113. Ice Skating at Kendrick Park in the winter
114. Passport Applications at Town Hall
115. PVTA - An awesome bus system!
116. Getting post card reminders from Animal Welfare Officer Carol Hepburn
117. The Recycling Shed and "Take-it-or-Leave-It" at the Transfer Station
118. Flu Clinics
119. LSSE Community Theater
120. LSSE
121. A Planning & Conservation department that understand smart growth means conservation and planning go hand in hand.
122. Watching ACTV
123. TED Talks on ACTV
124. Amherst Police's Party Patrol
125. Amherst PD Ropes Course for Kids
126. Police on Bike patrol
127. The Amherst PD's Blog
128. Gorgeous downtown crosswalks
129. Great drinking water (and protected water supplies)
130. The ability to pay town bills online
131. 15 Minute Free Parking spaces (in front of Black Sheet, Henions, etc)
132. Bike Lanes through town
133. Amherst Fire Department's SAFE 4th Grader Fire Prevention Program
134. Automated phone calls for emergencies
135. www.amherstma.gov
136. Fire House Open House for kids
137. The town's awesome GIS site
138. Amherst PD Citizen's Police Academy
139. The big truck that cleans up all the road salt and debris on the roads in the spring
140. Senior Center that promotes engagement, education, and aging at home with dignity.
141. Awesome EMTs

Cultural Attractions & Entertainment: 

142. Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook Art
143. Emily Dickinson House
144. National Yiddish Book Center
145. Amherst Cinema
146. UMass Fine Arts Center
147. Amherst 250th Celebration
148. UMass Renaissance Center
149. Shedding Light
150. Valley Light Opera
151. Public art in the parking garage
152. The Town Fair on the Common with all the fun rides & cotton candy
153. The Apple Harvest Festival
154. Amity Street Band Rusty Belle
155. LVW Book Sale on the Common
156. Rotary Club Fair on the Common
157. Wildwood/ARMS/ARHS band Who Shot Hollywood
158. All the Tag Sales in town
159. Local bluegrass band The Fine & Dandy Trio
160. Seeing all your friends at the Taste of Amherst
161. Merry Maple Celebration
162. The Ko Festival
163. Jazz in July at UMass

Historical Preservation & History: 

164. Emily Dickinson Preservation District
165. Amherst Town Hall
166. Amherst Historical Society
167. Jones Library
168. The historical mural at West Cemetery
169. Amherst Historical Society's "Amherst A to Z" book
170. Beautiful Tobacco Barns throughout town
171. The Kimball House (still standing)
172. Amherst History Museum/Strong House
173. The public sculpture of Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost in conversation

Libraries: 

174. Jones Library
175. Munson Library
176. North Amherst Library
177. Local artist works in the Burnett Gallery in the Jones
178. Jones Special Collections
179. Jones Children's Reading Room
180. The Jones' Digital Amherst website
181. Free Computer & Internet access at Jones
182. English Language Learners Program
183. Summer Reading Program
184. Free Computer courses - wait, these were cut
185. Amherst College Library (any Amherst citizen can use it!)
186. WEB Dubois Library at UMass (same)

Education: 

187. ARHS ranks 21st out of 332 MA high schools on SAT scores
188. ARHS graduates attending Bennington, Bowdoin, Amherst College, Carleton, Connecticut College, Dartmouth, Harvard, Hatrford, Macalester, McGill, MIT, Middlebury, Mt. Holyoke, NYU, Oberlin, Occidental, RPI, Smith, Stanford, Swarthmore, Trinity, Tufts, Penn, Vassar, Wellesley, Wesleyan, Yale, and many others - and that's just some of the Class of 2009!
189. Wildwood Chinese New Year Parade
190. Ann White's Ft. River Chorus Concerts
191. Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast
192. Students with diverse interests - athletes in the orchestra and techies writing plays
193.  ARMS Junior Scholar Sprint
194. ARMS Math Counts Team
195. Strong electives at ARHS like Photography, ceramics, arts, clothing, wood technology
196. League Champion ARHS Girls & Boys Cross Country teams
197. National Champion ARHS Boys & Girls Ultimate Teams
198. ARHS Nordic Ski Team (3rd place in 2nd year of existence)
199. ARHS Philharmonia & Symphonic Band
200. The annual ARHS musical with over 200 students involved!
201. The nationally recognized Russian Language program from middle school through high school
202. ARHS Wind Ensemble & Orchestra
203. ARHS Theatre Company
204. ARHS Environmental Club
205. ARHS Hurricane Singers & Concert Choir
206. ARHS Dance Theatre Ensemble
207. ARHS Chorale that was one of two selected in the whole state for recognition
208. ARHS African Scholars Program
209. ARHS Bomba & Jazz Ensembles
210. ARMS & ARHS Principal Mark Jackson
211. ARHS & ARMS Music teachers Dave Ranen, Anita Cooper, and Tobias Thomas
212. The Elementary Schools' Instrumental Music Program
213. ARHS Parent Center
214. ARMS Family-School Partnership
215. Wildwood PTO
216. Crocker Farm PGO
217. Fort River Parent Council
218. Mark's Meadow PGO 
219. ARHS Student produced Student News TV program
220. String Orchestra - Elementary through High School
221. LSSE Primetime Afterschool
222. Amherst Education Foundation
223. Summer camp at Stone House Farm
224. Farm Camp at Hampshire College
225. LSSE Adult Education Program
226. Amherst Area Amateur Astronomer's Association - That's a lot of As!

Higher Education:

227. All the folks who have graduated from Hampshire College
228. Serious Amherst College alumni
229. Center for Community Engagement at Amherst College
230. Amherst College's annual $100k donation to town
231. University of Massachusetts alumni
232. UMass Citizen Scholars

Social Services:

233. Amherst Survival Center
234. Not Bread Alone
235. Winter Warming site for the homeless
236. Amherst Rotary Club
237. Family Outreach of Amherst
238. Amherst Family Center
239. Committee on Homelessness
240. Affordable Housing Committee
241. Hospice at the Fisher Home
242. Amherst's ABC House - A Better Chance
243. Shelter Sunday

Environmental Consciousness: 

244. PVTA Bus Serivce
245. Hitchcock Center
246. Town Recycling Program
247. Village Center zoning for denser development"
248. Our world-leading Salamander Crossing
249. Spring Blossoms all over town
250. Summer Planters downtown
251. Blue Jays & Cardinals in our backyards
252. Earth Day on the Common

Voice in Government: 

253. Bumper Sticker: "Amherst: Where only the 'H' is Silent"
254. All of our volunteer-driven Citizen Boards & Committees
255. Town Meeting

Amherst Being Amherst: 

256. Our Town symbol: The Book & Plow
257. Bumper Sticker that says "Amherst: Where Reality is Optional"
258. Amherstopoly
259. Extravaganja
260. Friendly People
261. Riding bikes through cornfields
262. People Who Care
263. The town's diversity & myriad of cultures and ethnicities for such a small town
264. Squeezing down the alley next to Antonio's
265. People Who are Involved
266. Always running into people you know on the streets
267. Food Not Bombs on the Common on Sundays
268. The Women in Black every Friday at noon
269. The Raging Grannies
270. WFCR
271. WMUA
270. You never have to struggle for conversation when you tell someone you are from Amherst!

250?  We couldn't stop at 250 reasons, so keep 'em coming!

We are a small town, hours away from any large cities.  Yet we have found a way to balance our small-town feel and green space with so many intellectual, cultural, economic, diverse, and caring pursuits.  Amherst is a happenning place with a long history.  And it didn't happen by accident.  We need to invest in preserving this quality of life.  Please vote YES for Amherst.